effects of tempering dough...or not

[pizzahead]

Hey guys

long time since posting but have a question. While I have read many suggest tempering dough to bring up to room temp before baking, I have not done it.

What is the effect on Not Tempering before baking, and what are the advantages of tempering. The primary reason I dont do it is due to limited space and I do 6 different size pies.

thanks for your feedback

pizzahead

 

[stpaullee]

I’m certainly no expert but I believe you could get bigger bubbles in your dough while baking. Docking the dough would then help the situation.

 

[Tom_Lehmann]

Wellll, we don’t recommend tempering the dough TO room temperature, what we normally recommend is tempering it AT room temperature for about 2-hours prior to using it to make dough skins. I just got back from conducting an oven evaluation and we followed my printed, dough management procedure to the letter, then, on the following day, we allowed the dough to temper at room temperature for 2.5-hours before we began opening the dough balls up into thin crust skins, dressing and baking them as soon as we had them opened. Dough performance was, as the British say “spot on”, the dough was easy to open, the edges were great, and the best part, no bubbles, or blisters, and no docking, just great looking, and eating pizzas all day long.
If you don’t allow the dough to temper for a period of time after you take it out of the cooler, be prepared do get in some time with the bubble popper. Every dough is a little different, some may be ready to go in as little as an hour, especially smaller size dough balls (mine were 10 and 14-ounces), while others will take a little more than 2-hours, as mine did this past week. I normally pull a box of dough out of the cooler and begin making pizzas every 15-minutes from the dough balls until I determine what tempering time is working best for the conditions in a particular store. Once you have that information, all you need to do is to control the finished dough temperature, and get the dough cut, balled, and into the cooler as quickly as possible and that time will remain appropriate. If it isn’t correct on any one day, for whatever reason, it will tell you so by the presence of bubbles, if that happens, just begin docking the dough until you get a little more tempering time on it, then you should be able to stop docking it. Also, once the tempering period is right, you wil have a window of opportunity to use the dough of about 3 to 4-hours (all the while keeping the dough covered at room temperature. This is assuming you have a shop at about 70 to 75F. If you shop is warmer, your opportunity to use the dough will be shorter.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

 

[pizzahead]

Thanks Tom…

with the assortment of sizes we do, I may find it very challenging to “forecast” the amount of dough balls to be used for any given shift. Is there an option to “salvage” any dough that is not used? We also do garlic knots so I know that I can use some for that purpose and try and minimize the un-used product.

also, other than the bubbles, is there any difference in the quality of bake? or crispness of pie…in a deck oven

thank you

 

[doughball]

Question for Tom. When you do these tests or valuations, or what ever you call them, do you make a full batch of dough or just a partial? If you make a full batch what happens to all the dough after you are done???

 

[Tom_Lehmann]

The colder dough temperature will result in a slightly longer baking time. This can be a problem in a conveyor oven of any type due to the fixed baking time, but in a deck oven you will automatically, just leave the pizza in the oven a little longer. Bubbling will be the main issue.
If you have dough that is getting “long in the tooth” just open it up to nearly full diameter, then place it on a screen(s) and store it on a wire tree rack in the cooler. Cover with a plastic bag after 30-minutes to prevent drying. T%hen use the pre-opened dough skins later in the same day. To use them, just pull from the cooler about 20-minutes before you anticipate needing them, remove from the screen and finish opening with a toss or two, dress and bake to the order. We do this all the time and it works just fine. Any dough left over at the end of the day should be mixed back into fresh dough. There is almost no reason to toss dough out.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor